page_title: Del Rio, Tennessee
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Del Rio, Tennessee / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: The French Broad River in Del Rio, Tennessee.
context_page_description: Del Rio is an unincorporated community in Cocke County, Tennessee, United States. Although it is not a census-designated place, the ZIP Code Tabulation Area for the ZIP Code that serves Del Rio had a population of 2,138, according to the 2000 census.
context_section_description: A Native American village once occupied the site along the French Broad River where Del Rio is now situated.  Frank Stokely, who lived in the area in the mid-20th century, collected a large number of artifacts left by the natives of this village and displayed them in a small museum.  The Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Archaeological Society also conducted excavations in the area.
  The first European settler in what is now Del Rio was John Huff (1758–1843), a veteran of the American Revolution, and his wife Mary Corder (1766–1842).  Huff, a hunter and trapper, received a 400-acre (1.6 km²) land grant at the confluence of Long Creek and the French Broad.  Arriving around 1784, the Huffs erected a small blockhouse known as Huff's Fort, which would serve as a stopping post for stagecoaches traveling between Knoxville, Tennessee, and Warm Springs (now Hot Springs) in North Carolina.  The community that arose in the vicinity became known as Big Creek.
  Shortly after the Huffs arrived, another Revolutionary War veteran, Jehu Stokely (1747–1816), settled in the Big Creek area.  According to family lore, Stokely was impressed into the British navy, but escaped and fought under American captain John Paul Jones.  Stokely's tract was just over 3 miles (5 km) east of Huff's Fort. John Fugate (1764–1837), also a veteran of the Revolution, settled in the Paint Rock area.  In 1986, the community held a ceremony marking Fugate's grave as a Revolutionary War hero.
  In the decade following Huff's arrival, the constant stream of Euro-American settlers into East Tennessee agitated the Cherokee, who had lived and hunted in the region for centuries. Cattle were stolen, and some settlers were scalped and murdered, leading to massive reprisal attacks on Cherokee villages.  Between 1783, a series of forts sprang in Cocke County along the Pigeon River and the French Broad, one being Wood's Fort near modern Edwina, just west of Del Rio.  Historian J.G.M. Ramsey reports that by 1793, a series of blockhouses lined the French Broad, including the previously-mentioned Huff's (which Ramsey spells "Hough's"), one at Paint Rock, one at Burnt Cane, and another at Warm Springs.  Guards stationed at the blockhouses regularly patrolled the area.  A treaty at the Tellico Blockhouse in 1794 eased much of the violence, although sporadic attacks occurred for years afterward.
caption: The French Broad River in Del Rio
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